I'm all for reining in abuses (Cardinal Law is another case, but his sinecure was handed to him by a previous pope), but if I knew I was going to have to retire to the level of a mere curate after having literally owned every ecclesiastical property in a diocese (as American bishops do), I would ne...

New York Times News Analysis by Peter Baker WASHINGTON — After more than a dozen Russians and three companies were indicted on Friday for interfering in the 2016 elections, President Trump’s first reaction was to claim personal vindication: “The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!” he ...

The 'Baker's Dozen' operated their scam out of a St. Pete troll farm. Their chief is called 'Putin's Cook'. What is known about these rascals? https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.2396877.1432898101!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg NYT 2/17 — ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Ope...

Instead of letting these rapscallions off the hook, by establishing actual crimes this indictment is a shot across the bow of Donald's de facto Cosa Nostra: 1. We might get you for abetting the crimes of the Russian baker's dozen, even if what you did to help them was perfectly legal. 2. Failing tha...

Full text of the 37-page speaking indictment reads like a spy novel, with Americans cast as the "useful idiots". https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1035562/download The indictment is unimpeachable. What about Donald's impeachability, incapable as he is of responding to Putin's and the Ru...

Washington Post LOS ANGELES — “Black Panther,” Marvel’s African-oriented comic book adaptation, is shaping up to be the most successful movie at the box office for a film with a primarily black cast. And it’s raising hopes for a new wave of broad-interest commercial films featuring black actors and ...

Reuters Pope orders retired prelates to live austerely, shun power Thu, Feb 15 By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, in a decision affecting Vatican officials and bishops around the world, on Thursday ordered them to lead simple lives and renounce any desire for power after they...

The New Yorker https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5a7b234dd4a6a8422237ab13/master/w_2000,c_limit/Farrow-Trump.jpg At right, from the top, David Pecker, the chairman of American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer; Karen McDougal, a former Playmate of the Year; Donald Trump; and Dyla...

Or a President having his brother as Attorney General? As you said, pure imagination! Now let's imagine a young WW II vet, a skilled investigator serving as general counsel to several Senate committees including the important Rackets Committee where he confronted Teamster mobster boss Jimmy Hoffa, ...

For the sake of public confidence, then, there should always be a professional distance between adviser and minister. Imagine if you will, a head of state of a powerful country (he shall remain nameless) who retains his daughter and son-in-law as two of his closest advisers, neither one having perm...

New York Times WASHINGTON — A second federal appeals court ruled on Thursday against President Trump’s latest effort to limit travel from countries said to pose a threat to the nation’s security. The decision, from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., will ha...

New York Times SYDNEY, Australia — Sex between Australia’s government ministers and their subordinates is now prohibited, a ban that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced on Thursday after a political scandal involving the deputy prime minister and a former staff member who is now pregnant. In ...

Why should workers leave a state like Illinois, where they have rights, to go to a state like Wisconsin where they have none? Well, despite those Wisconsin ads, if you already have a good job in Illinois, you are probably not going to be lured elsewhere by the vague promise of a better quality of l...

His Prokofiev . . . Also his Richard Strauss. Have listened in the past two days to live Boston SO perfs from the early 60s of Ein Heldenleben , Don Quixote (Silverstein/de Pasquale/Mayes), Die Tagezeiten and the Bourgeois Gentilhomme Suite. I also like his studio Heldenleben (RCA LSC-2641, reissue...

To hear the extempore Charles Munch leading the BSO in just about anything is a treat, especially his exciting live broadcasts. I guess I'm a sucker for French conductors. Less so but also, Erich Leinsdorf in big choral and operatic works. Just listened to his highly charged 1963 War Requiem, as goo...

Barack https://flic.kr/p/24hNRc2 Michelle https://flic.kr/p/23cZnj7 NY Times Holland Cotter https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/arts/design/obama-portrait.amp.html WASHINGTON — With the unveiling here Monday at the National Portrait Gallery of the official presidential likenes...

Wall Street Journal Beer. Cheese. The Packers. That’s what many people think of when they hear “Wisconsin.” But the state wants to add a new word to the list: jobs. The Badger State has an abundance of job openings, but not enough workers to fill them. Now, elected officials and businesses are hopi...

Former Trump Campaign Adviser Was More Than A Coffee Boy, Fiancee Says NPR February 12, 2018 Tom Dreisbach Once special counsel Robert Mueller unveiled charges against George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump 2016 presidential campaign, the White House insisted he didn't pl...

A great performance from July, 1963 -- the US premiere of this work. ________________________________________________________________ https://www.bso.org/media/2030154/britten_war_reuquiem.jpg Anthony Fogg Artistic Administrator, BSO Tanglewood, 2007 The Boston Symphony of this period boasted some o...

The Brahms 2nd has been remastered and reissued by HDTT. The others TMK have not been (except maybe in Japan?) but should be. Leinsdorf was an excellent conductor of this composer. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0778/3319/products/Brahms_Sym_2_leinsdorf_Cover_large.png?v=1491079731 I just encount...

I'm a lot older than you are Doubtful. As for the two non-performing pillars, one is an authoritarian executive temperamentally hostile to democracy. The other is a lapdog legislature that so far has enabled this demagogic executive. The judiciary will become active only in the unlikely event that ...

Let's agree to disagree on this one. The Times and Wash Post reporters may not be political scientists, but they do explore in some depth the causality and the patterns behind the political events they report. Contrary to what you suggest, they have maintained a dispassionate tone even when provoked...

Read again what I wrote ... [You wrote:] They have their agendas too. Neither should hard news reporting be confused with analysis. The Times does both better than most. And of course the NY Times has a point of view. Every newspaper worth its salt has a point of view. That does not preclude unbias...

Does one have to paint a picture here? Apparently, yes. In his campaign memoir Let Trump Be Trump , [Corey] Lewandowski described the unusual breadth of Hicks’s responsibilities. “When we landed, it was Hope’s job to steam him [Trump]. ‘Get the machine!’ he’d yell. And Hope would take out the steam...

The Washington Post Hope Hicks: The quiet one in Trump’s White House suddenly feels the glare By Mary Jordan and Josh Dawsey February 10 In a White House full of noise, she is the quiet one. Not the TV gladiator, not press room warrior, not a general. Certainly not the Mooch. Hope Hicks, the discre...

I don't care that he didn't kick his dog. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tfaB03IcL._SS500_.jpg Dog abuser or not, the late bishop was doing his job honorably by speaking his mind. I mostly disagreed with him, but at least we've moved past picking nits about what the man said or ...

Chicago Cardinal Francis George, the ‘American Ratzinger,’ Dies John L. Allen Jr. Apr 17, 2015 https://cruxnow.com/church/2015/04/17/chicago-cardinal-francis-george-the-american-ratzinger-dies/ During an era under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, when Catholicism was trying to swim against an i...

. . . is not a saying of the late dubious Cardinal George, though he might have quoted it. I assure you, I have known my share of American Cardinals, and none of them was a man of sufficient stature to originate such a saying. Neither did the late cardinal originate this saying: "Speak no ill of th...

The Washington Post By Tara Bahrampour Feb. 7, 2018 One white supremacist who discovered he had African DNA claimed on the white nationalist website Stormfront.com that the testing company was part of a Jewish conspiracy to “defame, confuse and deracinate young whites on a mass level.” As more Amer...

We weren't promised a rose garden, j. Our time here is limited, and any one of a number of things could cause the entire species to go the way of all flesh at any moment. Expectations of species immortality based on political hope are as much the stuff of science fiction as thinking that our descen...

Washington Post The rescue of the planet’s protective ozone layer has been hailed as one of the great success stories of modern environmental regulation — but on Monday, an international team of 22 scientists raised doubts about whether ozone is recovering as expected across much of the world. “We’...

Actually it was a message not a tweet, reminding all really solid football fans to stand proud during the National Anthem, or words to that effect. More and more the guy reminds me of Elmer Gantry. Would he pass an NFL concussion protocol?

Thanks for posting that video. 6HorkiklZ4I&list=LL_0VnESyW6Is_382z3i5dXg&index=3 I am happy for the Eagles. Truly one of the great Super-Bowl games. I think both disputed Eagle touchdowns were legit scores. New England played a helluva game too. Tuned out the football killjoys. Ignored Donald's sour...

I haven't watched the games over the years but from highlights on the news I seem to remember some incredible finishes to these games. As for white wines I favor chardonays and my wife pinot grigios-we definitely want them dry--I'm not a fan of Sauvignon blanc but many people are-Trader Joe's is a ...

I'll be rooting for the Eagles but not betting on anyone--for starters I have a dislike of all New England sports teams-still smarting over how they used to destroy my Knicks :x Secondly we'll be in Philly for their superb flower show in early March and if the Eagles lose the Philadelphians may be ...